In this chapter, I. A general account of Israel's
enemies is premised, and of the mischief they did them, ver. 1-7. II. A particular account
of the brave exploits done by the first three of the judges. 1.
Othniel, whom God raised up to fight Israel's battles, and plead
their cause against the king of Mesopotamia, ver. 8-11. 2. Ehud, who was employed in
rescuing Israel out of the hands of the Moabites, and did it by
stabbing the king of Moab, ver.
12-30. 3. Shamgar, who signalized himself in an
encounter with the Philistines, ver.
31.

The Idolatry of the
Israelites. (b. c. 1406.)

1 Now these are the nations which the
Lord left, to prove Israel by them,
even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars
of Canaan; 2 Only that the generations of the children of
Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before
knew nothing thereof; 3 Namely, five lords of the
Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the
Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal-hermon unto
the entering in of Hamath. 4 And they were to prove Israel
by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments
of the Lord, which he commanded
their fathers by the hand of Moses. 5 And the children of
Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and
Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites: 6 And they took
their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to
their sons, and served their gods. 7 And the children of
Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgat the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the
groves.

We are here told what remained of the old
inhabitants of Canaan. 1. There were some of them that kept
together in united bodies, unbroken (v. 3): The five lords of the
Philistines, namely, Ashdod, Gaza, Askelon, Gath, and Ekron,
1 Sam. vi. 17. Three of
these cities had been in part reduced (ch. i. 18), but it seems the
Philistines (probably with the help of the other two, which
strengthened their confederacy with each other thenceforward)
recovered the possession of them. These gave the greatest
disturbance to Israel of any of the natives, especially in the
latter times of the judges, and they were never quite reduced until
David's time. There was a particular nation called
Canaanites, that kept their ground with the Sidonians, upon
the coast of the great sea. And in the north the Hivites held much
of Mount Lebanon, it being a remote corner, in which perhaps they
were supported by some of the neighbouring states. But, besides
these, 2. There were every where in all parts of the country some
scatterings of the nations (v.
5), Hittites, Amorites, &c., which, by Israel's
foolish connivance and indulgence, were so many, so easy, and so
insolent, that the children of Israel are said to dwell
among them, as if the right had still remained in the
Canaanites, and the Israelites had been taken in by their
permission and only as tenants at will.

Now concerning these remnants of the
natives observe,

I. How wisely God permitted them to remain.
It is mentioned in the close of the foregoing chapter as an act of
God's justice, that he let them remain for Israel's correction. But
here another construction is put upon it, and it appears to have
been an act of God's wisdom, that he let them remain for
Israel's real advantage, that those who had not known the wars
of Canaan might learn war, v. 1, 2. It was the will of God that
the people of Israel should be inured to war, 1. Because their
country was exceedingly rich and fruitful, and abounded with
dainties of all sorts, which, if they were not sometimes made to
know hardship, would be in danger of sinking them into the utmost
degree of luxury and effeminacy. They must sometimes wade in blood,
and not always in milk and honey, lest even their men of war, by
the long disuse of arms, should become as soft and as nice as the
tender and delicate woman, that would not set so much as the
sole of her foot to the ground for tenderness and delicacy, a
temper as destructive to every thing that is good as it is to every
thing that is great, and therefore to be carefully watched against
by all God's Israel. 2. Because their country lay very much in the
midst of enemies, by whom they must expect to be insulted; for
God's heritage was a speckled bird; the birds round about were
against her, Jer. xii.
9. It was therefore necessary they should be well
disciplined, that they might defend their coasts when invaded, and
might hereafter enlarge their coast as God had promised them. The
art of war is best learnt by experience, which not only acquaints
men with martial discipline, but (which is no less necessary)
inspires them with a martial disposition. It was for the interest
of Israel to breed soldiers, as it is the interest of an island to
breed sea-men, and therefore God left Canaanites among them, that,
by the less difficulties and hardships they met with in
encountering them, they might be prepared for greater, and, by
running with the footmen, might learn to contend with
horses, Jer. xii. 5.
Israel was a figure of the church militant, that must fight its way
to a triumphant state. The soldiers of Christ must endure hardness,
2 Tim. ii. 3. Corruption is
therefore left remaining in the hearts even of good Christians,
that they may learn war, may keep on the whole armour of
God, and stand continually upon their guard. The learned bishop
Patrick offers another sense of v. 2: That they might know to teach
them war, that is, they shall know what it is to be left to
themselves. Their fathers fought by a divine power. God taught
their hands to war and their fingers to fight; but now that they
have forfeited his favour let them learn what it is to fight like
other men.

II. How wickedly Israel mingled themselves
with those that did remain. One thing God intended in leaving them
among them was to prove Israel (v. 4), that those who were faithful to
the God of Israel might have the honour of resisting the
Canaanites' allurements to idolatry, and that those who were false
and insincere might be discovered, and might fall under the shame
of yielding to those allurements. Thus in the Christian churches
there must needs be heresies, that those who are perfect may be
made manifest, 1 Cor. xi.
19. Israel, upon trial, proved bad. 1. They joined in
marriage with the Canaanites (v.
6), though they could not advance either their honour or
their estate by marrying with them. They would mar their blood
instead of mending it, and sink their estates instead of raising
them, by such marriages. 2. Thus they were brought to join in
worship with them; they served their gods (v. 6), Baalim and the
groves (v. 7),
that is, the images that were worshipped in groves of thick trees,
which were a sort of natural temples. In such unequal matches there
is more reason to fear that the bad will corrupt the good than to
hope that the good will reform the bad, as there is in laying two
pears together, the one rotten and the other sound. When they
inclined to worship other gods they forgot the Lord their
God. In complaisance to their new relations, they talked of
nothing by Baalim and the groves, so that by degrees they lost the
remembrance of the true God, and forgot there was such a Being, and
what obligations they lay under to him. In nothing is the corrupt
memory of man more treacherous than in this, that it is apt to
forget God; because out of sight, he is out of mind; and here
begins all the wickedness that is in the world: they have
perverted their way, for they have forgotten the Lord their
God.

The Government of Othniel. (b. c. 1336.)

8 Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them
into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the
children of Israel served Chushan-rishathaim eight years. 9
And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord
raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered
them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger
brother. 10 And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel, and
went out to war: and the Lord
delivered Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and
his hand prevailed against Chushan-rishathaim. 11 And the
land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

We now come to the records of the
government of the particular judges, the first of which was
Othniel, in whom the story of this book is knit to that of Joshua,
for even in Joshua's time Othniel began to be famous, by which it
appears that it was not long after Israel's settlement in Canaan
before their purity began to be corrupted and their peace (by
consequence) disturbed. And those who have taken pains to enquire
into the sacred chronology are generally agreed that the Danites'
idolatry, and the war with the Benjamites for abusing the Levite's
concubine, though related in the latter end of this book, happened
about this time, under or before the government of Othniel, who,
though a judge, was not such a king in Israel as would keep men
from doing what was right in their own eyes. In this short
narrative of Othniel's government we have,

I. The distress that Israel was brought
into for their sin, v.
8. God being justly displeased with them for plucking up
the hedge of their peculiarity, and laying themselves in common
with the nations, plucked up the hedge of their protection and laid
them open to the nations, set them to sale as goods he would part
with, and the first that laid hands on them was Chushan-rishathaim,
king of that Syria which lay between the two great rivers of Tigris
and Euphrates, thence called Mesopotamia, which signifies
in the midst of rivers, and you can find
more about that here on
st-takla.org on other commentaries and
dictionary entries. It is probable that this was a
warlike prince, and, aiming to enlarge his dominions, he invaded
the two tribes first on the other side Jordan that lay next him,
and afterwards, perhaps by degrees, penetrated into the heart of
the country, and as far as he went put them under contribution,
exacting it with rigour, and perhaps quartering soldiers upon them.
Laban, who oppressed Jacob with a hard service, was of this
country; but it lay at such a distance that one could not have
thought Israel's trouble would come from such a far country, which
shows so much the more of the hand of God in it.

II. Their return to God in this distress:
When he slew them, then they sought him whom before they had
slighted. The children of Israel, even the generality of
them, cried unto the Lord, v. 9. At first they made light of their
trouble, and thought they could easily shake off the yoke of a
prince at such a distance; but, when it continued eight years, they
began to feel the smart of it, and then those cried under it who
before had laughed at it. Those who in the day of their mirth had
cried to Baalim and Ashtaroth now that they are in trouble cry to
the Lord from whom they had revolted, whose justice brought them
into this trouble, and whose power and favour could alone help them
out of it. Affliction makes those cry to God with importunity who
before would scarcely speak to him.

III. God's return in mercy to them for
their deliverance. Though need drove them to him, he did not
therefore reject their prayers, but graciously raised up a
deliverer, or saviour, as the word is. Observe, 1. Who the
deliverer was. It was Othniel, who married Caleb's daughter, one of
the old stock that had seen the works of the Lord, and had
himself, no question, kept his integrity, and secretly lamented the
apostasy of his people, but waited for a divine call to appear
publicly for the redress of their grievances. He was now, we may
suppose, far advanced in years, when God raised him up to this
honour, but the decays of age were no hindrance to his usefulness
when God had work for him to do. 2. Whence he had his commission,
not of man, nor by man; but the Spirit of the Lord came upon
him (v. 10), the
spirit of wisdom and courage to qualify him for the service, and a
spirit of power to excite him to it, so as to give him and others
full satisfaction that it was the will of God he should engage in
it. The Chaldee says, The spirit of prophecy remained on
him. 3. What method he took. He first judged Israel, reproved
them, called them to account for their sins, and reformed them, and
then went out to war. This was the right method. Let sin at home be
conquered, that worst of enemies, and then enemies abroad will be
the more easily dealt with. Thus let Christ be our Judge and
Law-giver, and then he will save us, and on no other terms,
Isa. xxxiii. 22. 4. What
good success he had. He prevailed to break the yoke of the
oppression, and, as it should seem, to break the neck of the
oppressor; for it is said, The Lord delivered Chushan-rishathaim
into his hand. Now was Judah, of which tribe Othniel was, as
a lion's whelp gone up from the prey. 5. The happy consequence
of Othniel's good services. The land, though not getting ground,
yet had rest, and some fruits of the reformation, forty years; and
the benefit would have been perpetual if they had kept close to God
and their duty.

Israel Oppressed by Eglon; Eglon Slain by
Ehud. (b. c. 1336.)

12 And the children of Israel did evil again in
the sight of the Lord: and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab
against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the
Lord. 13 And he gathered unto
him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel,
and possessed the city of palm trees. 14 So the children of
Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. 15 But
when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord
raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a
man left-handed: and by him the children of Israel sent a present
unto Eglon the king of Moab. 16 But Ehud made him a dagger
which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under
his raiment upon his right thigh. 17 And he brought the
present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat
man. 18 And when he had made an end to offer the present, he
sent away the people that bare the present. 19 But he
himself turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal,
and said, I have a secret errand unto thee, O king: who said, Keep
silence. And all that stood by him went out from him. 20 And
Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which
he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God
unto thee. And he arose out of his seat. 21 And Ehud
put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh,
and thrust it into his belly: 22 And the haft also went in
after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he
could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out.
23 Then Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the
doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them. 24 When he
was gone out, his servants came; and when they saw that, behold,
the doors of the parlour were locked, they said, Surely he
covereth his feet in his summer chamber. 25 And they tarried
till they were ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the
parlour; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and,
behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.
26 And Ehud escaped while they tarried, and passed beyond the
quarries, and escaped unto Seirath. 27 And it came to pass,
when he was come, that he blew a trumpet in the mountain of
Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the
mount, and he before them. 28 And he said unto them, Follow
after me: for the Lord hath
delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went
down after him, and took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, and
suffered not a man to pass over. 29 And they slew of Moab at
that time about ten thousand men, all lusty, and all men of valour;
and there escaped not a man. 30 So Moab was subdued that day
under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest fourscore
years.

Ehud is the next of the judges whose
achievements are related in this history, and here is an account of
his actions.

I. When Israel sins again God raises up a
new oppressor, v.
12-14. It was an aggravation of their wickedness that
they did evil again after they had smarted so long for their former
iniquities, promised so fair when Othniel judged them, and received
so much mercy from God in their deliverance. What, and after all
this, again to break his commandments! Was the disease obstinate to
all the methods of cure, both corrosives and lenitives? It seems it
was. Perhaps they thought they might make the more bold with their
old sins because they saw themselves in no danger from their old
oppressor; the powers of that kingdom were weakened and brought
low. But God made them know that he had variety of rods wherewith
to chastise them: He strengthened Eglon king of Moab against
them. This oppressor lay nearer to them than the former, and
therefore would be the more mischievous to them; God's judgments
thus approached them gradually, to bring them to repentance. When
Israel dwelt in tents, but kept their integrity, Balak king of
Moab, who would have strengthened himself against them, was
baffled; but now that they had forsaken God, and worshipped the
gods of the nations round about them (and perhaps those of the
Moabites among the rest), here was another king of Moab, whom God
strengthened against them, put power into his hands, though a
wicked man, that he might be a scourge to Israel. The staff in his
hand with which he beat Israel was God's indignation; howbeit he
meant not so, neither did his heart think so, Isa. x. 6, 7. Israelites did ill,
and, we may suppose, Moabites did worse; yet because God commonly
punishes the sins of his own people in this world, that, the flesh
being destroyed, the spirit may be saved, Israel is weakened and
Moab strengthened against them. God would not suffer the
Israelites, when they were the stronger, to distress the Moabites,
nor give them any disturbance, though they were idolaters
(Deut. ii. 9); yet now he
suffered the Moabites to distress Israel, and strengthened them on
purpose that they might: Thy judgments, O God! are a great
deep. The king of Moab took to his assistance the Ammonites and
Amalekites (v. 13),
and this strengthened him; and we are here told how they prevailed.
1. They beat them in the field: They went and smote Israel
(v. 13), not only
those tribes that lay next them on the other side Jordan, who,
though first settled, being frontier-tribes, were most disturbed;
but those also within Jordan, for they made themselves masters of
the city of palm-trees, which, it is probable, was a
strong-hold erected near the place where Jericho had stood, for
that was so called (Deut. xxxiv.
3), into which the Moabites put a garrison, to be a
bridle upon Israel, and to secure the passes of Jordan, for the
preservation of the communication with their own country. It was
well for the Kenites that they had left this city (ch. i. 16) before it fell into
the hands of the enemy. See how quickly the Israelites lost that by
their own sin which they had gained by miracles of divine mercy. 2.
They made them to serve (v.
14), that is, exacted tribute from them, either the
fruits of the earth in kind or money in lieu of them. They
neglected the service of God, and did not pay him his tribute; thus
therefore did God recover from them that wine and oil, that
silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal, Hos. ii. 8. What should have been paid to the
divine grace, and was not, was distrained for, and paid to the
divine justice. The former servitude (v. 8) lasted but eight years, this
eighteen; for, if less troubles do not do the work, God will send
greater.

II. When Israel prays again God raises up a
new deliverer (v.
15), named Ehud. We are here told,

1. That he was a Benjamite. The city of
palm-trees lay within the lot of this tribe, by which it is
probable that they suffered most, and therefore stirred first to
shake off the yoke. It is supposed by the chronologers that the
Israelites' war with Benjamin for the wickedness of Gibeah, by
which that whole tribe was reduced to 600 men, happened before
this, so that we may well think that tribe to be now the weakest of
all the tribes, yet out of it God raised up this deliverer, in
token of his being perfectly reconciled to them, to manifest his
own power in ordaining strength out of weakness, and that he might
bestow more abundant honour upon that part which lacked,
1 Cor. xii. 24.

2. That he was left-handed, as it seems
many of that tribe were, ch.
xx. 16. Benjamin signifies the son of the right
hand, and yet multitudes of them were left-handed; for men's
natures do not always answer their names. The LXX. say he was an
ambi-dexter, one that could use both hands alike, supposing
that this was an advantage to him in the action he was called to;
but the Hebrew phrase, that he was shut of his right hand,
intimates that, either through disease of disuse, he made little or
no use of that, but of his left hand only, and so was the less fit
for war, because he must needs handle his sword but awkwardly; yet
God chose this left-handed man to be the man of his right hand,
whom he would make strong for himself, Ps. lxxx. 17. It was God's right hand
that gained Israel the victory (Ps.
xliv. 3), not the right hand of the instruments he
employed.

3. We are here told what Ehud did for the
deliverance of Israel out of the hands of the Moabites. He saved
the oppressed by destroying the oppressors, when the measure of
their iniquity was full and the set time to favour Israel had
come.

(1.) He put to death Eglon the king of
Moab; I say, put him to death, not murdered or assassinated
him, but as a judge, or minister of divine justice, executed the
judgments of God upon him, as an implacable enemy to God and
Israel. This story is particularly related.

[1.] He had a fair occasion of access to
him. Being an ingenious active man, and fit to stand before kings,
his people chose him to carry a present in the name of all Israel,
over and above their tribute, to their great lord the king of Moab,
that they might find favour in his eyes, v. 15. The present is called
mincha in the original, which is the word used in the law
for the offerings that were presented to God to obtain his favour;
these the children of Israel had not offered in their season to the
God that loved them; and now, to punish them for their neglect,
they are laid under a necessity of bringing their offerings to a
heathen prince that hated them. Ehud went on his errand to Eglon,
offered his present with the usual ceremony and expressions of
dutiful respect, the better to colour what he intended and to
prevent suspicion.

[2.] It should seem, from the first, he
designed to be the death of him, God putting it into his heart, and
letting him know also that the motion was from himself, by the
Spirit that came upon him, the impulses of which carried with them
their own evidence, and so gave him full satisfaction both as to
the lawfulness and the success of this daring attempt, of both
which he would have had reason enough to doubt. If he be sure that
God bids him do it, he is sure both that he may do it and that he
shall do it; for a command from God is sufficient to bear us out,
and bring us off, both against our consciences and against all the
world. That he compassed and imagined the death of this tyrant
appears by the preparation he made of a weapon for the purpose, a
short dagger, but half a yard long, like a bayonet, which might
easily be concealed under his clothes (v. 16), perhaps because none were
suffered to come near the king with their swords by their sides.
This he wore on his right thigh, that it might be the more ready to
his left hand, and might be the less suspected.

[3.] He contrived how to be alone with him,
which he might the more easily be now that he had not only made
himself known to him, but ingratiated himself by the present, and
the compliments which perhaps, on this occasion, he had passed upon
him. Observe, how he laid his plot. First, He concealed his
design even from his own attendants, brought them part of the way,
and then ordered them to go forward towards home, while he himself,
as if he had forgotten something behind him, went back to the king
of Moab's court, v.
18. There needed but one hand to do the execution; had
more been engaged they could not so safely have kept counsel, nor
so easily have made an escape. Secondly, He returned from
the quarries by Gilgal (v.
19), from the graven images (so it is in the
margin) which were with Gilgal, set up perhaps by the Moabites with
the twelve stones which Joshua had set up there. Some suggest that
the sight of these idols stirred up in him such an indignation
against the king of Moab as put him upon the execution of that
design which otherwise he had thought to let fall for the present.
Or, perhaps, he came so far as to these images, that, telling from
what place he returned, the king of Moab might be the more apt to
believe he had a message from God. Thirdly, He begged a
private audience, and obtained it in a withdrawing-room, here
called a summer parlour. He told the king he had a secret
errand to him, who thereupon ordered all his attendants to
withdraw, v. 19.
Whether he expected to receive some private instructions from an
oracle, or some private informations concerning the present state
of Israel, as if Ehud would betray his country, it was a very
unwise thing for him to be all alone with a stranger and one whom
he had reason to look upon as an enemy; but those that are marked
for ruin are infatuated, and their hearts hid from
understanding; God deprives them of discretion.

[4.] When he had him alone he soon
dispatched him. His summer parlour, where he used to indulge
himself in ease and luxury, was the place of his execution.
First, Ehud demands his attention to a message from
God (v. 20), and
that message was a dagger. God sends to us by the judgments of his
hand, as well as by the judgments of his mouth. Secondly,
Eglon pays respect to a message from God. Though a king, though a
heathen king, though rich and powerful, though now tyrannizing over
the people of God, though a fat unwieldy man that could not easily
rise nor stand long, though in private and what he did was not
under observation, yet, when he expected to receive orders from
heaven, he rose out of his seat; whether it was low and easy, or
whether it was high and stately, he quitted it, and stood up when
God was about to speak to him, thereby owning God his superior.
This shames the irreverence of many who are called Christians, and
yet, when a message from God is delivered to them, study to show,
by all the marks of carelessness, how little they regard it. Ehud,
in calling what he had to do a message from God, plainly
avouches a divine commission for it; and God's inclining Eglon to
stand up to it did both confirm the commission and facilitate the
execution. Thirdly, The message was delivered, not to his
ear, but immediately, and literally, to his heart, into which the
fatal knife was thrust, and was left there, v. 21, 22. His extreme fatness made
him unable to resist or to help himself; probably it was the effect
of his luxury and excess; and, when the fat closed up the
blade, God would by this circumstance show how those that
pamper the body do but prepare for their own misery. However, it
was an emblem of his carnal security and senselessness. His heart
was a fat as grease, and in that he thought himself enclosed. See
Ps. cxix. 70; xvii.
10. Eglon signifies a calf, and he fell like a
fatted calf, by the knife, an acceptable sacrifice to divine
justice. Notice is taken of the coming out of the dirt or dung,
that the death of this proud tyrant may appear the more ignominious
and shameful. He that had been so very nice and curious about his
own body, to keep it easy and clean, shall now be found wallowing
in his own blood and excrements. Thus does God pour contempt upon
princes. Now this act of Ehud's may justify itself because he had
special direction from God to do it, and it was agreeable to the
usual method which, under that dispensation, God took to avenge his
people of their enemies, and to manifest to the world his own
justice. But it will by no means justify any now in doing the like.
No such commissions are now given, and to pretend to them is to
blaspheme God, and made him patronize the worst of villanies.
Christ bade Peter sheathe the sword, and we find not that he bade
him draw it again.

[5.] Providence wonderfully favoured his
escape, when he had done the execution. First, The tyrant
fell silently, without any shriek or out-cry, which might have been
overheard by his servants at a distance. How silently does he go
down to the pit, choked up, it may be, with his own fat, which
stifled his dying groans, though he had made so great a noise in
the world, and had been the terror of the mighty in the land of
the living! Secondly, The heroic executioner of this vengeance,
with such a presence of mind as discovered not only no
consciousness of guilt, but a strong confidence in the divine
protection, shut the doors after him, took the key with him, and
passed through the guards with such an air of innocence, and
boldness, and unconcernedness, as made them not at all to suspect
his having done any thing amiss. Thirdly, The servants that
attended in the antechamber, coming to the door of the inner
parlour, when Ehud had gone, to know their master's pleasure, and
finding it locked and all quiet, concluded he had lain down to
sleep, had covered his feet upon his couch, and gone to consult his
pillow about the message he had received, and to dream upon it
(v. 24), and
therefore would not offer to open the door. Thus by their care not
to disturb his sleep they lost the opportunity of revenging his
death. See what comes of men's taking state too much, and obliging
those about them to keep their distance; some time or other it may
come against them more than they think of. Fourthly, The
servants at length opened the door, and found their master had
slept indeed his long sleep, v. 25. The horror of this tragical
spectacle, and the confusion it must needs put them into, to
reflect upon their own inconsideration in not opening the door
sooner, quite put by the thoughts of sending pursuers after him
that had done it, whom now they despaired of overtaking.
Lastly, Ehud by this means made his escape to Sierath, a
thick wood; so some, v.
26. It is not said anywhere in this story what was the
place in which Eglon lived now; but, there being no mention of Ehud
passing and repassing Jordan, I am inclined to think that Eglon had
left his own country of Moab, on the other side Jordan, and made
his principal residence at this time in the city of palm-trees,
within the land of Canaan, a richer country than his own, and that
there he was slain, and then the quarries by Gilgal were not far
off him. There where he had settled himself, and thought he had
sufficiently fortified himself to lord it over the people of God,
there he was cut off, and proved to be fed for the slaughter
like a lamb in a large place.

(2.) Ehud, having slain the king of Moab,
gave a total rout to the forces of the Moabites that were among
them, and so effectually shook off the yoke of their oppression.
[1.] He raised an army immediately in Mount Ephraim, at some
distance from the headquarters of the Moabites, and headed them
himself, v. 27. The
trumpet he blew was indeed a jubilee-trumpet, proclaiming liberty,
and a joyful sound it was to the oppressed Israelites, who for a
long time had heard no other trumpets than those of their enemies.
[2.] Like a pious man, and as one that did all this in faith, he
took encouragement himself, and gave encouragement to his soldiers,
from the power of God engaged for them (v. 28): "Follow me, for the Lord
hath delivered your enemies into your hands; we are sure to
have God with us, and therefore may go on boldly, and shall go on
triumphantly." [3.] Like a politic general, he first secured the
fords of Jordan, set strong guards upon all those passes, to cut
off the communications between the Moabites that were in the land
of Israel (for upon them only his design was) and their own country
on the other side Jordan, that if, upon the alarm given them, they
resolved to fly, they might not escape thither, and, if they
resolved to fight, they might not have assistance thence. Thus he
shut them up in that land as their prison in which they were
pleasing themselves as their palace and paradise. [4.] He then fell
upon them, and put them all to the sword, 10,000 of them, which it
seems was the number appointed to keep Israel in subjection
(v. 29): There
escaped not a man of them. And they were the best and choicest
of all the king of Moab's forces, all lusty men, men of bulk and
stature, and not only able-bodied, but high spirited too, and men
of valour, v. 29.
But neither their strength nor their courage stood them in any
stead when the set time had come for God to deliver them into the
hand of Israel. [5.] The consequence of this victory was that the
power of the Moabites was wholly broken in the land of Israel. The
country was cleared of these oppressors, and the land had rest
eighty years, v.
30. We may hope that there was likewise a reformation
among them, and a check give to idolatry, by the influence of Ehud
which continued a good part of this time. It was a great while for
the land to rest, fourscore years; yet what is that to the saints'
everlasting rest in the heavenly Canaan?

Shamgar Slays Six Hundred
Philistines. (b. c. 1316.)

31 And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath,
which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and
he also delivered Israel.

When it is said the land had rest eighty
years, some think it meant chiefly of that part of the land
which lay eastward on the banks of Jordan, which had been oppressed
by the Moabites; but it seems, by this passage here, that the other
side of the country which lay south-west was in that time infested
by the Philistines, against whom Shamgar made head. 1. It seems
Israel needed deliverance, for he delivered Israel; how
great the distress was Deborah afterwards related in her song
(ch. v. 6), that
in the days of Shamgar the highways were unoccupied,
&c.; that part of the country which lay next to the Philistines
was so infested with plunderers that people could not travel the
roads in safety, but were in danger of being set upon and robbed,
nor durst they dwell in the unguarded villages, but were forced to
take shelter in the fortified cities. 2. God raised him up to
deliver them, as it should seem, while Ehud was yet living, but
superannuated. So inconsiderable were the enemies for number that
it seems the killing of 600 of them amounted to a deliverance of
Israel, and so many he slew with an ox-goad, or, as some read it,
a plough-share, and you can find
more about that here on
st-takla.org on other commentaries and
dictionary entries. It is probable that he was himself following
the plough when the Philistines made an inroad upon the country to
ravage it, and God put it into his heart to oppose them; the
impulse being sudden and strong, and having neither sword nor spear
to do execution with, he took the instrument that was next at hand,
some of the tools of his plough, and with that killed so many
hundred men and came off unhurt. See here, (1.) That God can make
those eminently serviceable to his glory and his church's good
whose extraction, education, and employment, are very mean and
obscure. He that has the residue of the Spirit could, when he
pleased, make ploughmen judges and generals, and fishermen
apostles. (2.) It is no matter how weak the weapon is if God direct
and strengthen the arm. An ox-goad, when God pleases, shall do more
than Goliath's sword. And sometimes he chooses to work by such
unlikely means, that the excellency of the power may appear to be
of God.